Almost anyone you talk to on the last day of E3 will tell you how much they’re looking forward to heading home. So it never feels well to have a high-profile interview on the last day, particularly in the afternoon.

That was the position I found myself sitting down with J Allard, Corporate Vice President and Chief XNA Architect, and a couple other members of the press to talk about Xbox 360.

Next time I’ll bring a boom mike because besides my voice and J Allard’s, I could barely hear anyone else in the room. (This was really fun interview to transcribe!) But we chatted about the Xbox 360, the fizzle of the Xbox in Japan, Sony’s political campaign, the likelihood of seeing the Xbox still going in 2007, and one or two items of what can only be called Game Philosophy. Thanks for your time, J!

J Allard

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J Allard Xbox 360 Interview

Q: Is there casual acceptance of [video] game’s artistry?

Allard: We’re not there yet. We’re just not there yet. If you look at mainstream publications and you just look at the balance of print or broadcast or web journalism as a percentage relative to television – movies, music, sports, books even. For crying out loud, Entertainment Weekly… I think they put more words to review plays than they do videogames. So, I don’t think we’re there yet. We gotta get there though, that’s why on Monday I was talking about “Let’s go get a billion gamers and make it as mainstream as these other art forms."

Q: Do you see Xbox 360 as a step toward that?

Allard: I think it’s three steps towards it. I think that we’ve got several things we have to do on our part. We have to make the device itself more inviting. I think we’ve done that. A lot of people’s reactions – seeing the device for the first time – is “Finally one that I don’t have to banish to the basement.” On the remote control we’ve put the “action” button, put A, B, X, Y, and up, down, left, right so if you want to play a simple card or puzzle game you don’t have to be an expert gamer [to get it going]. Paraphrase: It’s about easing people to the space, the online space that will make new gamers. There’s a little company from the UK called Rare that has broader appeal titles. We have online arcade so you don’t even have to go to the store to deal with the retail clerk or read reviews or anything else. Buy a $5 game a $10 game; it’s disposable. It’s a thirty-minute experience. So I think we’re paving some steps along the way and I think certainly that Nintendo and Sony are paving some steps as well.

Q: What went wrong in Japan and what are you doing to correct it for 360?

Allard: We didn’t have a team in place. We didn’t have a game plan that was rock solid. We didn’t take into account their needs in terms of the brand, the industrial design. The portfolio was very limited. We didn’t have the world’s best game developers and publisher support that we needed in Japan. And we weren’t differentiated. We also had a two-year disadvantage. [PS2] I think, launched in March of 2000, and we launched in February of 2002. That was another bad thing. They’re not getting a head start this time, that’s for sure. We’ve got the world’s best game publishers onboard. We’ve got the most creative, well-known developers onboard, which will bring more developers onboard. We’ve incorporated the regional feedback in terms of the name, in terms of the brand, in terms of the aesthetic qualities of the box. And the capabilities of the box, especially on gaming. And we’ve got a great team in place there now. It’s battle-scarred but very eager to get going.

Q: Is there a cultural acceptance of an outside company coming in and trying to claim the market, versus the “home court advantage” of [Sony and Nintendo].

Allard: I would grant the advantage more to Sony in the sense that Mr. Kutaragi visits all the publishers very regularly. And [they] can have very active dialogue, which means the people responsible for creating the platform between the people that are creating the games. And Mr. Kutaragi may have wanted the executives making the decisions in Japan their hitch for the PlayStation business. The executive team from Redmond makes lots of journeys over to Japan to make sure that we’re visible and to take feedback on our licenses there. At the same time, what has Microsoft done for them? We don’t have the background with them. We haven’t helped advance their companies. Everyone, I would say, has been very flattering

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to us in terms of us advancing the industry and they like the innovation and they like what we’re doing with Xbox 360 but what have we done for them? They are running businesses, so there is that advantage there that Sony holds that… the good news is, that this next generation the score is zero zero.

Indecipherable garble and J Allard asking, “Why does gaming matter?” Then a long pause. I’ll admit that even I was baffled by the question when it was asked.

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Allard: Well, because… you know, I… I think that in today’s society people are looking for an outlet to escape, to enjoy, to relax, to be empowered with decisions, to be presented with choice in a way that doesn’t have the permanence of the real world. I could make some really big decisions in a videogame without physical risk. The fact I can jump into a half-pipe and never skin my knee or break a bone – the escapism is one huge appeal. I think another big appeal is that community has been really, really important to the Internet. The Internet is very empowering. We’ve turned readers into writers and we’ve connected morals in a much more powerful, powerful fashion. And I look at Xbox 360 as a way to do the same types of things with bringing community together in interesting and exciting ways for leisure time. The Internet was very information focused, this is more leisure focused.

>> To Page 2 of J Allard Interview >>


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